Chuck D To Produce PBS Hip-Hop Docuseries

PBS revealed that a four-part documentary about hip-hop and its impact on American society would debut on the network in January. “Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World” was created by Public Enemy co-founder Chuck D and his production partner, Lorrie Boula. The docuseries is set for release on January 31, 2023. The show, which takes its name from the classic Public Enemy song “Fight the Power,” will follow the development of hip-hop from its beginnings to the present, examining how the controversial art form became a cultural phenomenon that had a variety of effects on America. To tell the tale, the series will employ archive video and in-depth interviews with rappers, artists, and academics.

“The hip hop community has, from the start, been doing what the rest of media is only now catching up to,”  Chuck D told The Grio. “Long before any conglomerate realized it was time to wake up, hip hop had been speaking out and telling truths.” Interviews with rap music legends, including Ice-T, Run DMC, Will.I.Am, Lupe Fiasco, and Fat Joe, will be featured in “Fight The Power.” Last Poets Founder Abiodun Oyewole, Grandmaster Caz of Cold Crush Brothers, Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Roxanne Shanté are among the pioneers of hip-hop included in the series’ interviews. 

Bill Gardner, vice president of multiplatform programming and head of development for PBS, told The Grio that PBS is excited to join with Chuck D, Lorrie Boula and BBC Music to produce the series on the music genre. “Hip hop is one of the most influential artistic genres and cultural movements of our time, and we’re thrilled to tell a deep and unflinching story with one of its originators and most powerful voices,” he added.

Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, 61, best known as Chuck D, is the leader and frontman of Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav, Chuck D helped create politically and socially conscious hip hop music in the mid-1980s.